another crackpot idea: a shock cage

Justin Kuhn

Justin Kuhn

Veteran
Not that I would want to intentionally place my camera in harm's way, but maybe sometimes I'd like to go someplace slightly hazardous, where bumps could occur and maybe there's some debris flying around, like Iraq or my little brother's birthday party. Better safe than sorry, right?

We start off with a cage around the camera (think of the RED cage). From there you can put on the secondary cage--the "shock cage." This cage suspends the camera using bungees or straps in its center. Think of the shock mounts you use for a shotgun mike. That's basically what the idea is, a shock mount for your camera. You need the inner primary cage so that the tension is equal on all sides of the camera. Additional protection could be added to the secondary cage as necessary, like a debris cover or various protection front and back.
 
Make it and I will look. Sounds interesting, but I think the shouckmount just moves noise, doesn't stabilize. Dunno if it would apply to a camera, you would just wobbling everywhere. I'd like to see someone try it out though.

-Rh
 
I like creative thinking... but trust me... whatever you spend on this will be wasted unless you have a gerbil.

I have about 8 or so precision springs that I spent a hundred bucks on from Century... they were for a little "shock" arm that I built... I still haven't thrown the springs away because of what I paid for them... but your project smells like that.

Getting a camera stable means controlling several forces... one of the first ways to do that is unified mass... then removing the center of gravity away from the cam... the cage would only magnify the second factor.

I like creative thinking... I build a lot of failed projects in pursuit of successful ones... so I hate to discourage you, but I'll bet you're going to wish you didn't spend whatever $$$ you're going to spend to see that my above points may be right.

PS. You can have the springs for the cost of shipping... PM me if you want 'em. I used telescoping aluminum tubes of about 1.25-1.5" to make my "greatest invention" that didn't work... these springs go around the tubes.
 
Sorry I wasn't more clear, guys...the point isn't to stabilize, but rather to protect the camera in situations where it might be dropped, bumped, or impacted. An excellent application for this would be skate videos. It's possible Marc Singer could use one in Iraq (or could have though the extra space would probably be an issue). I'd also want something like this for car mount work--even if the mount is secure and never comes off, you've still got your insects and flying pebbles and so on.
 
I've been skating for almost 6years. That device alone would never work for skating in the field. Too bulky. Might as well get a back brace for when you do runs. What part of skating do you have in mind? Maybe you could use it on vert and ride along with them. That would be pretty intense for the camera op and the skater, he'd have to know his exact run so cam op doesn't get in the way.
 
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